PULSE II: Meet The Artist
Akram Fadl
“My work embodies a personal history filled with different experiences and discoveries over 10 years. I am influenced by Music, Beauty, Death, Spiritual elements and Surroundings in my work. The artwork comprises diverse techniques to express my personal visions.[It] is based on spiritual gestures and moments of purity when you become united with your soul in a pursuit of answers and guidance. You lose the senses related to the real world to enter a journey full of wonders.”
Untitled, Akram Fadl, 100cm x 80cm, Oil on canvas, 2012
In a skillful manner, Fadl’s portraits emerge out of a dark toned base. Entitled “Mesmerized” are a series of three portraits. One of which is frontal, the other blurred, and another pondering. The captivating portraits are loaded with emotions, while the palette used is generally dark, highlighting the mystic atmosphere that Fadl continues to create. Thin, red, brush strokes run through each of the three canvases, which creates movement and emphasizes continuity and search.
"Mesmerized" Akram Fadl, 30cm x 40cm, Oil on canvas, 2012
"Mesmerized" Akram Fadl, 30cm x 40cm, Oil on canvas, 2012
"Mesmerized" Akram Fadl, 30cm x 40cm, Oil on canvas, 2012
“Akram Fadl’s captivating portraits. Immersed in darkness, each piece resembles a figure withstanding a whirlwind of emotion. Fadl shows impressive skill in imprinting feeling on dark portraits, setting off a trance of contemplation” (Sara Elkamel, Al Ahram Online).
Akram Fadl, 100 cm x 100 cm, Oil on canvas, 2012
PULSE II: Alaa Abd El Hamid’s “Attempt Against Gravity”
” محاولة ضد الجاذبية “
هذه المحاولة جزء من مشروع ممتد بدأته منذ عامين .. وشهد هذا المشروع فى هذه المدة عدة تطورات خاصة فى اختيار الخامة
المناسبة وطريقة العرض
“Attempt Against Gravity”, Alaa Abd El Hamid, 20 cm, Polyester (1/8), 2010
” محاولة ضد الجاذبية ” : هى محاولة الإنسان للتخلص من أى قوة تريد السيطرة عليه وتقييد حريته ، فإنسان العصر الحديث يجد نفسه مضطرا ً إلى الخضوع لإيقاع الحياه السريع ويجد نفسه مجبر على التعامل مع انظمة تم وضعها من أجله لم يقم هو بإختيارها .. كأنظمة بطاقات الإئتمان و زحام المدن وطوابير السيارات وأنظمة تسويقية يتم تحويل الإنسان فيها إلى مستهلك وأشياء أخرى كثيرة فى العصر الحديث تكبل الإنسان وتمنع إنطلاقه. هى محاولة الإنسان أن يقرر مصيره بنفسه و ان يقدم على اختياراته وحياته بشجاعة و أن يتمرد على أى قوة تحاول ايقافه حتى لو كانت قوة الجاذبية الأرضية نفسها
علاء عبد الحميد
Alaa Abd El Hamid, 85 cm, Polyester, (1/8) 2010
In my attempts against gravity, I usually focus on the idea of liberating the body and letting it be free from any influences that might control it, even the force of gravity. These are the attempts of man to escape from the pace of the modern era, after he finds himself involved in all its forms: credit cards; installment systems; lines of traffic stuck in the crowds, waiting to move; among a number of other things that restrict people and strongly attract them. The idea of being free from control becomes a mere dream that’s hard to achieve. The phrase, “The solution is the solution” is an attempt to re-formulate or find a replacement for the old slogan ‘’ Islam is the solution.’’ In any problem, the solution lies simply in its solution! Not in any-thing else.
In this experiment, I focus on humanity’s attempts to get out of the control of any force that restricts intellectual freedom and the elevation of the mind. This experiment is an attempt to reject any ex-tremist thinking that takes humanity away from the essence of religion, and to replace fanatic ideas with the essence of religion, which is free of fanaticism. This experiment is an attempt to escape from any ideas that order humanity not to accept the other.”
PULSE II: Meet The Artist
SAMO
“My name is Samo Shalaby. I am a young emerging artist living in Cairo Egypt, with my family. I have been working in art practically my entire life. Since I was a little kid, I used to draw and scribble and started later on in my life to observe the people, animals, and the world growing around me.
"Street Boy" Samo Shalaby, 100cm x 80cm, Mixed Media on old wood pannel, 2012
In school, we started to learn about child labor and how bad children are being treated, it is unfair and rights should be made, when I walk on the streets, I see these boys and girls who are my age and younger either working on the streets, begging on the streets, or living on the streets. This made me feel sad and made me appreciate what I have, an education, a loving family, and fairness, I made this piece to prove a point, to show that there’s another side that people don’t know of the world.”
Samo's graffiti in Zamalek